should/can/will

An idea about how things get done:

Should = something comes to your mind and you value it, treasure it, in some way. Don't confuse this with reluctantly conceding to someone else "Yeah, I know, I should do that, but..." This is not necessarily to someone else. This is you talking convincingly to you. Hmmm, yes, all things considered, I really do think that doing that is better than not doing that. I want to do that. I really should do that! {also = Vision)

Can = this is the means by which something actually happens. I 'should' save money. If I use SKYPE instead of calling long distance, I CAN actually save money. In our discussion of the cycle of change, this can includes positive (put on) and negative (put off) things which by adding or subtracting actually make it possible to achieve progress toward what we should do; what we treasure. (also = Means)

Will = actually connecting what you treasure (what you should do/be) with what you actually "do/don't do" over time. This is 'live out'. It is also what is meant by enduring, persevering, not quitting, letting ______ keep happening. (also = Intention)

VIM = Vision Intention Means, as per Dallas Willard (should/will/can)

VRM = Vision, Resources, Momentum as per TelosXelot (Should/can/will)

The point I am focusing on is primarily the importance of knowing the reality of how people do stuff. That is a fairly basic and universal process.

The next point is focusing on the uniquely Christian aspects of "treasuring" compared to other views of what to treasure. Correspondingly, the whole cycle of following through from our treasuring becomes important.

An issue: Some Evangelical obsession with 16th century debates have at times undermined our awareness that 'sanctification', spiritual maturity, seeking first His Kingdom, etc. is not significantly different in process than any other human process of change. The fear of 'works righteousness' has lead to confusion on what to do with the un-earnable gift of salvation. Far too often we undermine maturation processes with the excuse of being loyal to grace. But grace is God's generous empowerment to receive and do what He wants us to receive and do. In other words, actively processing this Should/Can/Will in our pursuit of spiritual maturity appropriately will require an ongoing experiencing of grace in every step. God graciously illumines our understanding of what is truly worth treasuring. God gives us the strength to say no to things which undermine our treasure, he graciously provides what we need to put on to achieve the treasure and he graciously provides the power to endure over time in pursuit of that treasure.

more to follow

Choose something small, ask why SHOULD you do it? How CAN you do it? And then How WILL you do it to completion?

For everyone who intentionally overcomes, in almost any challenge, this is how it happens.

Colossians 3:1-17 NIV with highlight on you being plural (Y'all)

Colossians 3:1-17 NIV

TREASURE your position in Christ

1Since, then, Y’ALL have been raised with Christ, set Y’ALL’S hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set Y’ALL’s minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For Y’ALL died, and Y’ALL’S life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is Y’ALL’S^[a] life, appears, then Y’ALL also will appear with him in glory.

PUT OFF the old way of thinking and acting like you have to look out for #1

5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to Y’ALL’S earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.^[b] 7Y’ALL used to walk in these ways, in the life Y’ALL once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from Y’ALL’S lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since Y’ALL have taken off Y’ALL’S old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

PUT ON the new way of belonging in lasting love

12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe Y’ALL’S-selves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances Y’ALL may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave Y’ALL. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

LIVE OUT habits of gratitude which reinforce and apply the shift in thinking and living

15Let the peace of Christ rule in Y’ALL’S hearts, since as members of one body Y’ALL were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in Y’ALL richly as Y’ALL teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as Y’ALL sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in Y’ALL’S hearts to God. 17And whatever Y’ALL do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Christ Is Your Life - Eugene Peterson's translation of Colossians 3:1-17

^1-2 So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

^3-4Your old life is dead. Your new life, which is your real life—even though invisible to spectators—is with Christ in God. He is your life. When Christ (your real life, remember) shows up again on this earth, you'll show up, too—the real you, the glorious you. Meanwhile, be content with obscurity, like Christ.

^5-8And that means killing off everything connected with that way of death: sexual promiscuity, impurity, lust, doing whatever you feel like whenever you feel like it, and grabbing whatever attracts your fancy. That's a life shaped by things and feelings instead of by God. It's because of this kind of thing that God is about to explode in anger. It wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff and not knowing any better. But you know better now, so make sure it's all gone for good: bad temper, irritability, meanness, profanity, dirty talk.

^9-11Don't lie to one another. You're done with that old life. It's like a filthy set of ill-fitting clothes you've stripped off and put in the fire. Now you're dressed in a new wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it. All the old fashions are now obsolete. Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ.

^12-14So, chosen by God for this new life of love, dress in the wardrobe God picked out for you: compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, discipline. Be even-tempered, content with second place, quick to forgive an offense. Forgive as quickly and completely as the Master forgave you. And regardless of what else you put on, wear love. It's your basic, all-purpose garment. Never be without it.

^15-17Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. Let the Word of Christ—the Message—have the run of the house. Give it plenty of room in your lives. Instruct and direct one another using good common sense. And sing, sing your hearts out to God! Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way.

another skim through Colossians

We are looking to understand how life rooted in Jesus as Lord will grow into the best possible life as we increasingly apply his wisdom and strength to get better at practical love.

How the Jesus life works, as recorded in Colossians

Chapter 1:1-8

Faith – trust in Jesus as the reference point for your life

Hope – an image of what trusting in Jesus as the reference point of your life will look like/result in

Love – the essence of how a life rooted in Jesus works (and what it is)

• V Faith is the roots
• V Hope is a dotted line sketch of a full-grown fruitful tree
• V Love is the growth actually happening season to season

Chapter 1:9-14

Paul’s vision of the growth cycle. He briefly explains the sequence of growing from a wrong view of life to a healthy view of life.

God gives spiritual understanding >We live out the understanding>That produces results (fruit)>Those results enable us to understand more

The cycle continues because God gives us the strength to keep it going.

When it works we understand and apply the difference between life outside of the Christ’s Kingdom vs. life inside Christ’s Kingdom.

Chapter 1:15-23

Christ is the Creator stepping into rebellious creation to reconcile effectively.

Chapter 1:21-2:5

The reconciliation process is very painful in that it is against the grain of a world in rebellion. However, it is worth it to endure pain for the benefit of seeing people grow up in Christ like the should be.

Chapter 2:6-15

The greatness of Christ must be understood so that you don’t settle for a copy (and end up not escaping the rebellious world).

Chapter 2:16-23

Since Christ has overcome oppressive rules and oppressive spirits, don’t get sidetracked into issues of rules and spirits; focus on Christ.

Chapter 3:1-17

Focusing on Christ works by treasuring a vision for a completed life with Christ, putting off what isn’t in accordance with that, putting on what is in accordance with that, and living it out intentionally. The essence of the challenge is to rely on the Creator (revealed in Christ) instead of relying on some form of cleverness or intensity in you or elsewhere in creation to get what you want.

Chapter 3:18-4:1

This is how your faith in Christ, with a hope of full reconciliation to your creator, works in practical relationships that give and receive appropriate love.

Chapter 4:2-18

Be aware that you are one of many people living this out personally and helping others to live it out as well.

Colossians 3 thoughts in progress

Life is experienced as an interaction between desires and satisfactions.

Understanding the relationship of desire and satisfaction is at the heart of philosophy, religion and psychology.

Very basically the biblical contention is that there are two fundamental perspectives.

Cosmos: The predominate pattern of human behavior is to notice that there are all sorts of resources in the accessible creation which can have various degrees of success in meeting desires.

Creator: The biblical exhortation is to trust that the Creator is not only the source of every good thing in creation, he is the only reliable hope of ultimate resolution of the desire/satisfaction dilemma.

Colossians makes this argument (Creator over creation) this way.

Because the people in Colossae trust in a few things (the gospel and it’s implications) they can grow to understand life better and live life better. They are told that the key is Christ. The explanation is that Christ is the Creator in creation and that he has shown that the Creator at his weakest (suffering death on the cross) is greater than the creation at it’s strongest (killing the Christ). This is demonstrated by the resurrection, which is declared ‘good news’. The ‘good news’ is that the Creator has demonstrated that trusting in the Creator over creation in this life (right here and now) is the right way to think and live, even if it seems very difficult.

The challenge is not to get distracted by the things which accompany faith in Christ (rules and experiences and such) but to constantly live in a way that is fundamentally what Jesus did: trust God to provide and to guide even when choices are very difficult.

Now, Colossians 3:1-17

1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Christ overcome the problem of death (cosmos without right relationship to God). Identification with him via trust (faith) demonstrated in baptism etc., means identification with his status. If you trust all that, then you are trusting that where he is you are. Subsequently order your thinking, your perception of reality in a way that is consistent. That way, when history concludes (your’s or the world’s, whichever comes first) you will have lived in such a way to experience that conclusion as a good and glorious things. As per the them of desire/satisfaction, your deepest desires will be gloriously satisfied when the separation from your Creator is completely removed.

So what should we do in the mean time?

5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

The dismantling of the wrong way of thinking. To use gardening imagery, putting to death is pruning. You don’t allow life to flow into branches of thought and actions which do not bear good fruit. You select the branches which drain the plant of productivity and you cut them off. What are the branches of our lives which need to be pruned? There are a couple of lists, and some explanations.

The first list of branches of thinking and living in our lives is our nature in normal action without appropriate reference to God:

 πορνείαν, = Porneian = non-married sexual gratification

 ἀκαθαρσίαν = akatharsian = mixed up impulsiveness for gratification regardless of ... whatever

 πάθος = pathos = passionate drives (doing stuff "just because I really want to and that is enough justification)

 ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν = epithumian = cravings (desires running all through you)

 τὴν πλεονεξίαν = tein pleonexian = greedy scheming (finding a way to get what you want... no matter what)

These are all idolatry= not acknowledging God as the source of Good, but trying to hack into pleasure without paying for it
 
Prune off these forms of piracy. God is angry with thievery. You are tempted to be a habitual pleasure pirate but now you need to stop it.

Also you need to prune away:

 ὀργήν = orgein = angry character

 θυμόν = thumon = fury

 Κακίαν = kakian = meanness

 βλασφημίαν = blaspheimian = violent speech (fightin' words)

 αἰσχρολογίαν = aiskrologian = nasty talk

The fundamental idea is one of fending for yourself. IF God is not to be trusted, then you need to use whatever you can to get what you desire (want/need). This can be bullying, seduction, manipulation, bargaining, etc. etc. The forms vary but the idea behind them is the same: the source of satisfaction in this world is you figuring out how to get what you want/need from others in this world.

The shift from this thinking to redeemed thinking is explained:

12Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Because of a covenant with God, you no longer need to be like the prodigal son. That son used his resources (inheritance) to find his way in the world. Satisfaction was temporarily found when he had more resources than apparent needs, but when the ratio changed he found himself filthy and humiliated. When he was received back by the father, as choice, holy and dearly loved, he was provided fresh clothes to represent his fresh status. For Christians that would include:

 compassion = σπλάγχνα οἰκτιρμοῦ = splayxna oiktirmou = merciful guts

 kindness = χρηστότητα = Chreistoteita = usefulness / kindness (helpful vs contrary)

 humility = ταπεινοφροσύνην = tapeinophrosumein = low mindedness (not full of yourself)

 gentleness = πρᾳότητα = praoteita = meekness (not demanding)

 patience = Μακροθυμίαν = makrothumian = great ability to undure discomfort without freaking out

How do we get to have these habits instead of the others? Essentially by calibrating our perspective relative to Christ. If we trust Christ, then we will do what he says bravely, without freaking out and grabbing (through manipulation, slander, seduction, or whatever).

A life of forgiveness, love (agape), peace (irenic character), and gratitude are fostered by collectively learning the Word, challenging one another constructively, singing about this way of thinking and living and essentially being intentional to connect God to everything you choose to think, say or do.

test

In the Mean Time
 
Kill off (prune) pirated actions of pleasure stealing

" πορνείαν, = Porneian = non-married sexual gratification

" ἀκαθαρσίαν = akatharsian = mixed up impulsiveness for gratification regardless of ... whatever

" πάθος = pathos = passionate drives (don't do stuff 'just because', implying - "just because I really want to and that is enough justification so, "hey, you, get off of my cloud*" *MickJ

" ἐπιθυμίαν κακήν = epithumian = cravings (desires running all through you)

" τὴν πλεονεξίαν = tein pleonexian = greedy scheming (finding a way to get what you want... no matter what)